Magnus Carlsen is making a fresh bid to consolidate his newly acquired world title by signing up for a stiff test against some of his most dangerous rivals.

The Norwegian, 23, had an uncomfortable coronation at Zurich this month in his first serious event since capturing the crown. He was close to defeat against Hikaru Nakamura of the US, suffered a near-collapse in the closing rounds with 1/4, and scraped home at the end with an artificial draw.

Hence the importance of the just announced €100,000 event in Azerbaijan in April. Carlsen will face Russia's Sergei Karjakin, 24, Italy's Fabiano Caruana, 21, and Nakamura 26, all of whom are young and hungry, with realistic ambitions to topple the champion. The two top Azeris complete the field and all 10 rounds will be at classical time rates whereas at Zurich half the games were one-hour rapid.

Azerbaijan and its Caucasian neighbour Armenia have a long-standing territorial feud and are also rivals for world and Olympiad medals at the top of world chess. This geopolitical angle may have influenced the surprise venue choice of Shamkir – a 40,000-population town much closer to the Armenian border than to the capital Baku – and it is certainly the reason why the world No2, Levon Aronian, who was Carlsen's closest rival at Zurich, is not invited. Two years ago the world title candidates was originally scheduled for Baku until Aronian refused to go there, citing fears for his physical safety.

Carlsen, for his part, continues to mix his two careers in chess and male modelling. The new marketing campaign for G-Star's 2014 clothes collection includes a video with a stylised presentation of a game between Carlsen and the 26-year-old British model Lily Cole.

At home Wood Green and Guildford increased their lead in last weekend's rounds of the British 4NCL League. Both teams have 100% match totals and almost equal game points, so the title will be decided when they meet during the final weekend in May.

This 4NCL game shows an attack which often works at amateur level and also reveals how strong players prepare for opponents. Black's 5…a6 is a popular line of the Slav (1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6) but White's counter with the Stonewall Ne5 and f4 is unusual. However, a database scores 67% for White, the best percentage of any reply to 5…a6.

Black soon goes astray by 7…Bb4 (c5!) and 8…exd5 (Nxd5!), and White's vigorous attack breaks through by 14 f5! aiming to meet f6 by 15 Ng6! Rf7 16 Nf4 with a big plus. The actual game proves still more drastic, as White sacrifices knight and bishop to force checkmate.